. It
seemed a long time before it was taken out, but then it saw pleasant
faces round. Everybody was smiling, and the furrier's daughter also
smiled; but she spoke less, and her cheeks were blushing like two red
roses.

The father took the full bottle and the corkscrew. Oh! it is
astonishing to a bottle the first time a cork is drawn from it. The
neck of the bottle could never afterwards forget that important moment
when, with a low sound, the cork flew, and the wine streamed out into
the awaiting glasses.

"To the health of the betrothed pair!" cried the father, and every
glass was drained; and the young mate kissed his lovely bride. "May
happiness and every blessing attend you both!" said the old people;
and the young man begged them to fill their glasses again for his
toast.

"To my return home and my wedding, within a year and a day!" he
cried; and when the glasses were empty he took the bottle, and lifted
it high above his head. "Thou hast been present during the happiest
day of my life; thou shalt never serve another!"

And he cast the bottle high up in the air. Ah! little did the
furrier's daughter think then that she should often look on that which
was flung up; but she was destined to do so. It fell among the thick
mass of reeds that bordered a pond in the woods. The neck of the
bottle remembered distinctly what it thought as it lay there, and it
was this: "I gave them wine, and they give me bog-water; but it was
well meant." It could no more see the betrothed young couple, or the
happy old people; but it heard in the distance the sounds of music and
of mirth. Then came two little peasant children peering among the
reeds. They saw the bottle, and carried it off with them: so it was
provided for.

At home, in the cottage among the woods where they lived, their eldest
brother, who was a sailor, had, the day before, come to say farewell;
for he was about to start on a long voyage. The mother was busy
packing various little matters, which the father was to take with him
to the town in the evening, when he went to see his son once more
before his departure, and give him again his mother's blessing. A
phial with spiced brandy was placed in the package; but at that moment
the children came in with the larger, stronger bottle which they had
found. A larger quantity could go into it than into the phial. It was
not the red wine, as before, that the bottle received, but some bitter
stuff. However, it also was exce